


Happily Ever After?

by CuddlerOfDragons



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-05-28 16:55:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15053684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuddlerOfDragons/pseuds/CuddlerOfDragons
Summary: Set immediately after Chloe sees Lucifer's 'Devil face' and before the events of 'Once Upon a Time'Chloe is offered a wish...





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

“Tell me, if you could have _one_ wish come true, what would it be?” 

The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once or was it just in Chloe’s head?  She looked around, all she could see was a hazy white mist.  Where was she?  How did she get here?  What had happened to her?

“Don’t be shy,”  The gentle voice came again,  “Anything at all; any _wrong_ that you‘d like to put right…?”

The face of her father swam into focus in Chloe’s mind.  The worst thing that had ever happened to her, had been _his_ murder…

***

Her head hurt, her back hurt; she was lying on something cold and hard.  In the dark.

She sat up - she wasn’t restrained or anything, _bonus_ \- she felt around in her pocket for her flashlight.  She had been lying on steps, in a large, circular space with pillars…

Memories of gunfire echoed in her head.  Gunfire and screams of pain and…

Lucifer.

Had he _left_ her here?  She panned the flashlight around, no bodies, no blood, no damage to the art work that was stored here.  No Pierce.

Did she _imagine_ it all?  Did she imagine _Lucifer_?  Crouched next to Pierce’s body, standing up, turning around and…

What had happened to Dan and Ella?  They had been going to send backup, hadn’t they?

***

A few hours later, it was an almost hysterical Chloe that ran past the doormen and into Lux.

Lucifer stood just beyond the top of the stairs, surveying his kingdom, when a young woman cannoned into him.  She pressed her body against his, her arms around him, her tears dampening his shirt.

“Lucifer, I’m _so_ glad you’re here, I’ve been so scared and everything’s _wrong_ and I don’t _understand_ and… he was _dead_.. and now he’s _alive_ and he got older and it’s all _different_ and you…”  She looked up at his face and her voice trailed off.  “You’re not _you_ …”

Her legs buckled and he effortlessly picked her up and carried her, unresisting, to the elevator.

Chloe opened her eyes to find Lucifer sponging her face with a cool, damp cloth.  He was looking at her with concern in his eyes but it was completely impersonal.

“Tell me what you’ve taken, Darling.”  He said, gently.

“Taken?”

“You’re hot, clammy and your pulse is racing.  The things you were saying downstairs made _no_ sense.  _What_ have you taken?”  He put some power into the last sentence and gazed into her eyes.

“ _My_ Lucifer would know that _that_ doesn’t work on me, _or_ the ‘desire’ thing.  There’s only _one_ Devil, right?  So how can there be two of you?”  she asked, sitting up.

“Maybe my brother…”  He said, puzzled.

“Yeah, right.  I’d have to be on _serious_ drugs to mix you up with Amenadiel…”

“I meant my twin… hold on, how do _you_ know Amenadiel?”

“You have a _twin_ … you’ve never said; does _he_ have another face?”

“What do you mean?”  Lucifer asked, trying to bluff her.

“Wow.  That must be why you don’t lie, you’re rubbish at it.  You… _my_ Lucifer had another face; red, burnt, scarred, red fire in his eyes…”

“You _saw_ it?”

“Well, _yeah_.”

“And it drove you insane.”  He said, flatly.

“I’m insane?  So I’m _not_ in a weird reality where my dad _didn’t_ die when I was nineteen, where I’m _not_ a cop, where _you_ don’t know me, where my… oh _no_ , Trixie?”

“Well, judging from the name, _Trixie_ is either a hooker or one of those ghastly handbag dogs…”

Chloe slapped him.  The force of it jarred the bones in her arm and seemed to have no effect on _him_ at all.  She started to cry again and buried her face in his chest.  He tried to ignore how _right_ her head felt, tucked under his chin that way.

“Trixie’s my daughter.” She sobbed, “I don’t even know if she _exists_ in this world.  I went home and someone _else_ lives there, I don’t even know where I _live_ …”

“While you’re ruining my shirt and slapping me around, may I remind you that you have repeatedly told me that I’m not _your_ Lucifer?”

“I know but you’re better than nothing.”

“Well, I have _never_ been called _that_ before.”  He said, with an amused smirk.  “I’d offer you a drink but it might not be safe on top of whatever it is…”

“I am _not_ on _drugs_.  Why _are_ you so down on the idea of drugs, anyway?  You _love_ drugs, you have _nothing_ against them…”

“No but I don’t need the bad publicity.  Just picture the headlines:  Chloe Decker, award winning actress, role model to young women everywhere, totally off her tits at Lux.  I imagine that there are already pictures online, of me carrying you up here.  Hopefully they’ll just think we’re having sex.”

Chloe giggled at that.  For once, she didn’t care what people thought of her.

“If I ever see _my_ Lucifer again, I’m going to tear _all_ his clothes off and finally give him what he’s been after for the last three years.”

“You’ve known me.. _him_ for three years and you _haven’t_ had sex?”

“Is that what I _am_ here?  An actress?”  She asked, ignoring his question.

“Star of the ‘Weaponizer’ films.”

“What happened to Kimo Van Zandt?”

“You were in the first film, together.  _Your_ character was a street kid who stole cars but by the end of the film she’d joined the police.  _Kimo’s_ character was written out.  After that, his career went downhill and these days he’s doing time for murder.”

“For Wesley Cabot?  _He_ didn’t do that.”

“No?  Who did?”

“Ryan Goldburg, their business manager.  Who worked the case?  Do you know?”

“Probably Detective Dildo - king of the open and shut.”

“Would that be Dan Espinoza, by any chance?”

“How’d you guess?”

“He’s my ex-husband… _there…_ not here.  I saw the one from _here_ at the precinct earlier… He’s _nothing_ like the Dan _I_ know; I mean, _my_ ex-Dan has done questionable things but the one here?  He made my skin crawl and I _really_ didn’t like the way this version of him _looked_ at me…”

Lucifer raised an eyebrow, questioningly.

“ _Utter_ contempt - like I was something he’d stepped in.  _My_ Lucifer calls _our_ version of him Detective Douche - which suits him, actually.”

“How did _we_ meet?  Was it when Delilah..?”

“Yeah.  Dan wanted me to pin it on Eddie Deacon - the drug dealer who did the shooting - and close it.”

“That’s what _Dildo_ actually did.”

“You.. _other_ you told _me_ what Deacon had said, before he died, so I dug deeper…”

“ _I_ told _him_ , he took no notice.  Who _did_ hire Deacon?”

“Jimmy Barnes.”

Lucifer said nothing but his jaw muscles twitched.

“You and I worked that case together, we cracked it because of the Rolex.  Barnes paid for the hit with the Rolex that Delilah gave him.  He was broke, so he couldn‘t pay cash.  His motive was the profits from her post mortem album sales.  You and I went and confronted him and he shot me.”

She pulled her top down a bit so he could see her scar.  Her vest was clearly visible _and_ the flattened bullet from earlier, that had so nearly missed it.

“Chloe Decker, actress, doesn’t have that scar.”

“You believe me, then?”

“I can tell that you’re not _lying_.  Where’s _this_ bullet from?”

“The shootout earlier today.  You.. _my_ lucifer protected me.  With his wings, I think.”

Abruptly Lucifer got up and went to the bar.  He poured himself a large glass of something, looked at Chloe and when she nodded he poured her one too.

“The Lucifer that _you_ know, has wings?”

“I _think_ so.  You have to understand that although he’s told me that he’s the Devil, from the start, he’s never tried to _prove_ it.  _Obviously_ , no one believes him.  Ella thinks he’s a method actor.”  Chloe smiles at the thought.  “Ella Lopez, forensic scientist, she works with us.”

“Here, she steals cars.”

“Yeah, she told me once that she used to do that.  So, you‘ve… _he’s_ never tried to prove… oh, except for the time, a few weeks after we met, he goaded me into shooting him.”

“And that wasn’t enough proof, for you?”

“Hardly.  He _bled,_ like a normal human.  It’s odd, though because when Jimmy Barnes shot _me_ , I’m fairly sure that he shot Lucifer, too.  Six times.”

“And I… _he_ didn’t bleed, _then_?”

“No, not ‘til _I_ shot him in the leg a few weeks later.  Anyway, after _that_ I just thought that you.. _he_.. was…”

“Deluded?”

“Compensating for an abusive childhood.  He had these scars, he _said_ from where he had Maze cut his wings off…”

Lucifer swiftly shrugged out of his jacket and shirt and showed his bare back to her.  He still bore the scars that she had seen before.

“Yeah, those.”  She confirmed.

He shrugged the shirt back on but didn’t button it.  The jacket, he left off.

“So, what happened to the two of you that makes you think he has his wings back?”

“It’s complicated.  We were set up by Lt. Marcus Pierce, my boss, who turned out to be a criminal mastermind who calls himself ’The Sinnerman’, only _Lucifer_ said that he was actually Cain - from the Bible.”

“I know who Cain is, he’s in L.A. is he?”

“ _This_ L.A. I don’t know about, _my_ version of L.A., yes.  Anyway, we walked into a trap.  Cain said he would let _me_ live but that he _had_ to kill Lucifer because he knew that he would hunt him down.  I stood in front of Lucifer…”

“You, got between Cain and m.. another version of _me_?”

“ _I_ was wearing a vest, he wasn’t, I’m a cop, he’s a civilian and I _believed_ he was human.”

“Atheist?”

“Yeah, I was.  Now…I find it hard to stomach a father treating his son the way your’s has treated you.”

“ _Then_ what happened?”  Lucifer asked, beginning to admire this woman more and more.

“ _I_ tried to shoot Cain, someone shot _me_ ,”  She indicated the flattened bullet.  “I think I blacked out because the next thing I know I’m on the roof with Lucifer and he sees that I’m alright and there’s this… whooshing noise and he’s gone.  I was pretty sure, then, that he’d been telling the literal truth, all this time.  There was more gunfire so I made my way back to the scene…”

“Is that when you saw his face?”

“He was crouching by Cain’s body, he heard me come in, he stood up, turned around and… I knew that it was all true.  I think I actually _said_ that to him… and there were blood covered feathers everywhere…”

The elevator dinged and Chloe looked up.

“Oh, hey Maze,”  She said, without thinking.

There was a movement of air and Lucifer’s hand was suddenly in front of her as he snatched Maze’s dagger from its lethal flight path.

“That was rude, Maze,”  He said, throwing the dagger back at her.  “You might want to use Jimmy Barnes for target practice, instead.”

“What’d _he_ do?”  Maze asked, her voice low and menacing.

“Delilah.”  Lucifer said, coldly.

Maze nodded.  She glared at Chloe.

“Only my friends get to call me that.”  She snarled.

“Sorry, Mazikeen.  Where I come from, we were room mates for over a year.  You babysat my daughter, you took her trick-or-treating, she _loves_ you…”  She didn’t bother explaining that there’d been a recent falling out.

Maze looked at Lucifer, questioningly.

“She seems to have come from a divergent reality.”  Lucifer explained.  “My Father’s probably behind it.”

“Riiight.”  Maze spun on her heel and left.

“You were, _seriously_ , roomies?”

“Yeah, when she wasn’t off bounty hunting.”  Chloe said, still kinda shocked at the whole knife throwing thing and the creepy half-mask.

“Hunting humans for money, the perfect hobby for her.”

“She’s considered to be the best in the country, it was a bit more than a hobby.  Do you really think that this is down to your Dad?“

“Who else would have the power?  My guess is, _one_ thing changed, in _your_ past and this,”  He gestured around him, “Is the result.  It can’t be a coincidence that _this_ happened after you had had proof that I am who I say I am.”

“My father being alive…  Do you have a computer?”

“Of course.  What did you have in mind?”

“We Google Chloe Decker, actress and see what happened in _her_ life.”

The biography was easy to find and surprisingly detailed, citing ‘Hot Tub High School’ as her first movie (“I’m _so_ glad that you at least made _that_ movie, Detective.”  She shivered slightly when he called her that..)

Her father was still shot but, in _this_ world, not fatally.  (“It’s interesting because it _wasn’t_ a random thing,”  Chloe explained, “I found out, last year, that my dad had been targeted because he was looking into something…”  “Maybe he took it as a warning and stopped looking..”  Lucifer speculated.)

More low grade movies for Chloe and then another big event.  She was kidnapped.

The kidnapping had been uncharacteristically public, with the kidnappers posting footage of her, chained and blindfolded, to the internet.  She had been gone a month, before being dumped, outside the precinct, in a security camera blind-spot.  She had been beaten and raped.

Chloe felt Lucifer tense when he read that part but what _she_ was looking at was the date.  She skimmed down the page of text and, sure enough, she had been off the radar for a full year afterwards.

“Look at the date she was taken, Lucifer.”  She said.

“What about it?  Is it significant?  I wasn’t on earth then.”

“I know.  When she was _first_ taken, was around nine months before _my_ daughter’s birth-date.  It says that she was in a private clinic being treated for PTSD.  For a year.  _Plenty_ of time for her to have had a baby.”

“You think..?”

“Yeah.  I do.  The bio doesn’t mention children or relationships - I can see why she would find it hard to trust men - the baby was probably adopted.”

“This event and how she dealt with it, probably explains why she has been such an inspiration to young women.  Overcoming something _this_ big…”

“Possibly bigger than the public know…”

“Do you think it was a message to your… _her_ father?”

“It seems likely.  The whole thing was just _so_ public and there were no arrests ever made.  I think he got too close to something, for a second time and _this_ was how they warned him off.”  Chloe said, disgusted.

“And _now_ , he just turns a blind eye to everything, letting Detective _Dildo_ and the rest take the easiest options on each case..”

“I need to check…”

Chloe logged on to the police computer, using Dan’s password, valid, even in _this_ reality.

First off, she checked the evidence log for Delilah’s case; Eddie Deacon’s list of possessions included the murder weapon and drugs matching the ones in Delilah’s purse but no cash and no Rolex watch.

“Stolen at the scene, do you suppose?”  Lucifer asked.

“Would have to have been.  I remember Dan saying to me, by the time _I_ got there, that it was probably a fake; so, even in _this_ reality, it didn’t go missing until _after_ the PD arrived.”

“The scene would have been ‘secured’ as soon as they got here…”

“So one of _them_ had to have been the thief.”

“Evidence that would have _convicted_ Barnes, was stolen by police officers.  And they say _I’m_ evil.”  Lucifer said, his voice disgusted.

“You’re not evil, Lucifer.  I’ve seen plenty of evil in my job, you’re not it.”  She said it in a matter-of-fact way that told him that she had probably said it to _her_ version of himself, as well.

“How long did the sweaty little homunculus get, anyway?”

“In my world?  He’s in an institution for the criminally insane.  He raves about The Devil and bangs his head on the walls until he bleeds… I can’t see him _ever_ getting out.”

“He saw my true face, then.”

“How is it your _true_ face?  You didn’t _always_ have it, you were described as the brightest and most beautiful…”

“Looked me up, did you, Detective?”

“At the beginning, yes.”  She said, trying to ignore the way she felt when he called her that.  “I wanted to see what drew you to _that_ persona.  Obviously, I now know that it’s who you _are_.”

“It’s how I looked, when I arrived in Hell.  They broke my wings, chained me and let me fall through atmospheres and dimensions.  I was burnt to a cinder.”

“Show me?”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve seen it already but I didn’t get a chance to…”

He changed.  He kept his eyes lowered and did his best to look non-threatening.

“Does it hurt?”  She asked, her voice full of compassion.

“Not now; at the time, very much.”  He was lisping slightly and Chloe realized that his tongue was forked.

“One of my siblings split my tongue with a sword, to remind me that my words got me cast out.  I was unconscious at the time, so I don’t know which one of them it was…”

“Whichever of them is the most cowardly.”  Chloe said, her venomous tone telling him exactly what she thought of whoever had done this.  “You healed, though?”

“Yes.  It took longer than usual, the damage was extensive and I found that the demons I was sharing Hell with, preferred _this_ look, to my natural form.”

“So you kept it.  Like a costume.”

“I suppose so…”  He said, slowly; changing back to his usual self.

“Then it’s _not_ your true form, is it?  It’s more like… _cosplay_.”

“ _You_ should have been a lawyer.”

“No, I like to sleep at night.  Let’s look at some more cases.”

The next one she looked at was the manslaughter of Robbie Russell Jr., for which, it seemed, Nick Hofmeister was doing time.  This left Josh Bryant free to carry on his nasty trade in ‘exclusive’ photographs.  Dead or damaged A-Listers, paying the price for _his_ career.

Ty Huntley had, at least, got a much reduced sentence for the death of Ali Thornton, when blood tests revealed a ‘date-rape’ drug in his system.  His agent, Joe Hanson, valiantly pledged his support at this ‘vile miscarriage of justice’ and publicly stated that he was certain of Ty’s innocence.  Of _course_ he was; as certain as only the true killer _can_ be.

After reading about Carver Cruz’s death at a ‘ransom drop gone wrong- _unsolved_ ‘; Chloe stopped looking.  It was too hard to see _this_ world’s version of the cases that she and Lucifer had worked,  in what she was _now_ thinking of as the ‘real’ world.  They’d _worked_ , ensuring that the _right_ people were punished; to see those same cases being so badly mishandled in a world that _didn’t_ feature Detective Chloe Decker in partnership with Lucifer Morningstar was just _depressing_. 

Did the other detectives working for the LAPD not _care_ about getting it _right_?  It was fairly basic, _surely_?  Convict the wrong person and the guilty party gets to keep on doing whatever they want.  An _innocent_ person goes to jail.  She _couldn’t_ have been the _only_ person working there who _cared_ about that, could she?  Surely the job was about justice not _results_.  Getting a quick result might _look_ good but not if an innocent is convicted while the guilty go free.

“Would you like to stay here for the night?”  Lucifer asked, breaking her train of thought.  “In my guest room, obviously.”

“Thank you.  You’ve been very kind to me.”  She _meant_ it; he had listened to her insane story, believed her and helped her.  “Tomorrow I need to go and see Linda; it seems _I_ was seeing her, in this reality and, apparently, helping her get her own TV show.”

Lucifer looked blank.

“Doctor Linda Martin?  Your therapist?  Okay, not in _this_ world, I guess.”

“Why would _I_ need a therapist?”

“ _I_ don’t know.  That was between _my_ Lucifer and the doctor.  She was _Delilah’s_ therapist, we went to talk to her, he ended up seeing her professionally.  Oh and they were sleeping together for a while.”

“Oh, well, that’s alright then.”  Lucifer said, sounding relieved.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Detective Espinoza let himself into his apartment, bolting the door behind him before putting on the light.

“Ah, Detective Dildo, home at last.”  Lucifer purred, dangerously.  He was sitting across the room with a glass of scotch in his hand.

Dan drew his gun.

“Do you really want to wake your neighbours, Daniel?  Not to mention making a mess of this revolting carpet, oh and the inconvenience of a corpse in your living room.” 

“No inconvenience, I’ll just have shot an intruder.  After all, you did break into my home.”

“Does your door look broken, to you?”  Lucifer asked.

Dan looked behind him, automatically and when he turned back, Lucifer was standing six inches away from him, looking down into his eyes.

“I’m just going to talk,”  He said, “You can always shoot me after, if you’d like.”

Dan swallowed, his gun hand was shaking.  Lucifer was seriously invading his personal space and creeping him out.  For three years he had dismissed this guy as nothing but an annoying dick with more wealth than he deserved and warped taste in bar staff.  Now, suddenly, he was threatening.  His almost black eyes felt as though they were stripping Dan’s soul…

“There’s a question that I should have asked you, a long time ago.”  Lucifer said, when Dan’s eyes were so focused on his that he couldn’t even blink.  “Most remiss of me to leave it _un_ asked.  Tell me Daniel, what is it that you desire?”

“I…”  Dan’s insides were churning, as if an inverted twister was forming within him, everything that he wanted, spinning and funnelling upwards, desires jostling for position as the one thing he most wanted in the whole of the universe spun to the pointed end of the vortex and was thrown outwards.

“I want never to have met Chloe Decker.”  He whispered.

“Now, tell me _why_.”  Lucifer asked, increasing the pressure of his gift…

***

Chloe woke to the smell of cooking and the realization that she was famished.  Lucifer, always the perfect host, had offered her food, last night but she had been too tired to do anything other than shower, before tumbling into bed in his ‘guest room’.

Guest room.  Ha!  Guest _suite_ , more like; she imagined that it was similar to staying in one of those hotels that cost thousands of dollars a night.  The attached bathroom had had everything she could possibly need: towels and a fluffy bath robe - still in their packaging, a box of toiletries - toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner - all of it top quality, all of it brand new and sealed.  There was even a new set of matching underwear; she blushed when she saw that the bra was a 34B, how could he _possibly_ have known?  They had literally only just met…

Stomach rumbling, she was fast in the bathroom and felt confident enough of him to slip on one of his silk shirts to replace her own bullet-holed top.

He was doing an omelette and the sight and smell of it made her chest ache at the thought of the time he had let himself into her home and cooked for her.  So much had happened between them since then.

“Well, hel-lo, Detective.”  He said, in his usual seductive tone, “I see you found my wardrobe.  Quite right, too; can’t have you doing a walk of shame in front of the vermin of the press, can we?”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all, it looks delightful on you, you’ll probably start a trend.”

“It covers my gun and badge, which I shouldn’t actually have in _this_ world.”  she said, sitting at the breakfast table.

Really, the shirt was perfect. It hung almost to her knees and the sleeves had to be rolled but it was incredibly comfortable and, when she’d passed his full length mirror, it had looked as though it was a fashion statement.

“I had a dream,” She said, as he poured the coffee.

“Did you now.”

“Not like _that_.  I was in a place filled with white mist and a voice was asking me what I would wish for, if I could have a wish come true.”

“What was the voice like?”  He asked, putting her plate in front of her.

“Gentle but with power.  Neither male or female and it seemed to be inside my head.”

“And did you _make_ a wish?”

“Not really.  It asked me if there was a wrong I would like righted and I thought about my father’s murder but I didn’t actually _wish_ for anything.”

“And now, you find yourself in a world where your father lived through his shooting.  _Not_ a coincidence.”

“No.”  She looked across at him, there was something unreadable in his eyes that hadn’t been there the night before but, otherwise, he looked a lot like _her_ Lucifer had, back when they had _first_ met.  Beautiful, flirty and annoyingly carefree.  With a jolt she realized that _her_ Lucifer carried permanent _pain_ in his eyes, these days.  It had happened slowly and, to her shame, she hadn’t noticed.  Tears stung the back of her eyes as she realized that, as _this_ reality only differed because of a change in _her_ life, _she_ had, most probably, been the cause.  It seemed that _she_ had taken a dazzling, joyously wild, free spirit and broken him.

A tear splashed into her omelette.  Lucifer was immediately by her side.

“Darling?”  He had seen her flinch when he called her ’Detective’.   “Can I do anything to help?  I was planning on summoning my brother, whilst you’re at the Doctor’s, and finding out if there’s anything _he_ can do.  _Damn_ my father for doing this to you.”

“I think I probably deserve it.”  She said, scrubbing her tears away.

“Nonsense, no one _deserves_ to be one of Dad’s experiments.  I’ll try my best to get it undone, for you.”

“I can’t thank you enough for helping me, Lucifer.”  She said, putting a forkful of omelette into her mouth.

“Sex is always on the table,”  He said, with a smirk,  “or on any other surface that takes your fancy.  Seriously, Darling, never underestimate the restorative power of an orgasm.”

“You know,”  She said, thoughtfully, “For a change I would really like to but I can’t.  It would be disloyal to _my_ Lucifer.  I’ve loved him for so long and although he _says_ he only wants to be friends…”

“He says _that_?  He must be, somehow, unwell.  Tell me about this vulnerability of his.”

“He said that I made him vulnerable and I thought he meant emotionally… Oh.  I _slapped_ him…”

“And?”

“It didn’t feel the same as when I slapped you, last night.”

“How so?”

“Slapping you, hurt _me_.”

“I’m not surprised, you could have broken your hand.”

“Yes but when I slapped _him_ … it felt like slapping a human and he said that it hurt and then asked me to do it again.”

“It would have been a novelty for him.  What else?”

“He died.”  She whispered, her breathing erratic, now, as she remembered.  “He was gut shot, protecting me and Trixie and… he bled out on the floor…”

“Then what happened?”

“I didn’t see him get back up, I was trying to circle back to where the guns were… then he was there, distracting the shooter, giving me time to deal with the bastard…”

“Did he offer any explanation?”

“He said he died and then got better.”

“Well, it looks like dear old Dad has been messing with both of you.  We really _can’t_ have that.”

***

He drove her to Linda’s, in his ‘incognito car’ - a small thing, with tinted windows which the press didn’t even notice as the two of them drove out of the parking garage in it.  While he drove, she tried to get herself into the right mindset to fool Linda into thinking that she had lived her life in _this_ world.  It had been a long time since she had done ‘proper’ acting…  Turned out, it wasn’t so hard.

***

”So, Chloe, what did you want to talk about, so urgently?”  Linda asked.

“I think I need to really _face_ the consequences of what happened to me.”  Chloe said carefully.

“Are you sure that you’re ready?”

“I’ve been thinking about it all night and I really don’t think that I can move on as a person, without resolving this.”

“Well, if you’re sure…”  Chloe nodded,  “I’ll fetch the photographs.”  Linda said, disappearing into another room.

Chloe’s nervousness ramped up, while she waited.  _Photographs?_ Was she about to be shown pictures of her other, younger self being horribly abused by her kidnappers?  How would she stand it?  She’d seen plenty of murder scenes, not to mention horrific trophy pictures but…

“Here we are.”  Linda said, holding out a large photo album, the cover cheerfully decorated with pink flowers.  “Would you rather be alone?”

“I think so, yes.”  she said, numbly, taking the album.  Surely there could be nothing bad in here, not with pink flowers…

Linda left to make coffee and Chloe opened the book.

The photographs had no dates on them, no captions, no information of any kind.  The pictures spoke for themselves.

The tiny squalling baby, newborn, all red faced with a scrap of dark hair, a pink blanket around her… pages of her.. getting older every page.. her features slowly morphing over the years.. into the face that Chloe knew better than her own.  Eyes turned to the camera, smiling at unseen people, smiling at the lens.. at her mother?  At Chloe.

Linda was handing her a bunch of tissues and she hadn’t even known that she was crying.

“Thank you,”  She whispered, not sure if she was thanking Linda for showing her or maybe thanking Lucifer’s father, that Trixie existed here.  Her name probably _wasn’t_ Beatrice, Chloe would probably never meet her, never hold her but, if she was to be trapped in this world for good, at least her baby was here.

“You can keep them, if you want.”  Linda said, gently.

Chloe shook her head.

“She’s a secret.  I don’t want word of her getting out, I don’t want her life to change, I don’t want her hounded.  I just needed to _see_.”

No one could find out; she didn’t want her darling baby girl used as leverage, the way she had been.  She finished her coffee, hands shaking so much that Linda asked if she had driven.  There was relief in the therapist’s eyes when Chloe said that a friend was waiting in the car to drive her back.

She got into the car and fastened her seat belt.  Lucifer looked across at her, taking in her red eyes.

“You must think I cry all the time.”  She said, apologetically.  “I was right about the baby.  The adoption people have been sending photographs to Linda, for me, ever since she was born.  It’s her.  Trixie… Beatrice.  I know who kidnapped her mother.”

“Detective Dildo and a bunch of other corrupt cops.”  Lucifer said, his eyes flashing red.

“Yes.  She’s _our_ Trixie so Dan _had_ to have fathered her, which means that he had to have been one of the men who raped the other Chloe.”

“If it’s any consolation, he feels a crippling amount of guilt over it.  That’s why he looks at you the way he does, he’s disgusted about what he did.”

“So he hates me… _her_ for it.  Linda would say that that was classic displacement.  How did _you_ know, anyway?”

“I paid him a visit, last night.  After what you told me about the way he looked at you, I thought that there was _something_.  Turns out that we were right about it being a warning to your dad.  The orders came directly from the Sinnerman.”

“Stop the car.”

Lucifer hit the brakes and Chloe threw open the door and was violently sick into the road. 

“I’m sorry,”  she gasped, as he handed her a pack of moist clean-up squares which had been in the glove box.  Luckily she had managed not to get vomit on her clothes or the car and she gratefully cleaned up her face and then slumped back into her seat.

“That was an extreme reaction, was there something between you and Cain?”

“Lucifer was making it very clear that _he_ didn’t want me and Lt. Pierce had been really antagonistic to me, when he was first transferred to L.A. and then he started to be _nice_.  We dated.  He proposed.  I said yes.  Then I changed my mind.  I _wanted_ to love someone else.  Loving Lucifer and being rejected hurt _so_ much but I found I couldn’t be in love with Pierce because he wasn’t…”

“Your Lucifer?”

“No, no one else could ever measure up.  I’m _so_ pathetic, I marry Dan the douche, divorce him and then _almost_ marry the world’s first murderer.   And all this time I’m in love with someone honest, kind and just… and he’s an angel.  _Obviously_ he wouldn‘t want me.”

“ _You_ are not looking at this the right way.”  Lucifer said, as they drove back into Lux’s parking garage.  “ _Your_ Espinoza might have been a douche but I’d wager that he never did _anything_ as bad as Detective Dildo has done in _this_ reality.  That can only have been _your_ influence.  In this world, there have been, probably hundreds of botched cases, innocent people convicted, guilty people going free and the worst part?  We don’t even _realize_.  It took _you_ , coming here, looking at the cases that you solved _there,_ to show it up.  All that injustice.”

“Because my dad lived.”

“He didn’t want you to be a cop.  He said it’s too dangerous.  He knows about the Sinnerman organisation but he doesn’t know who can be trusted to help take it down.  He doesn’t want to risk his family.”

“When did you..?”

“I caught up with him after I’d seen Dan, asked him the question…”

“What does he desire?”

“For his family to be safe.  _That’s_ why he doesn’t push.”

“I can’t wish him _dead_.”

“Of course not.”

“So I’m never going back.”

“I talked to Amenadiel.  He said that the longer you’re _here_ , the less you’ll remember of the _other_ reality.  This world will become _real_ to you and you’ll only have memories of here.  Including _her_ ordeal at the hands of those evil, twisted…”

“It’s alright.”  She said, putting her hand over his where he was gripping the steering wheel.  “I’ll make a list of all the guilty ones that I _know_ got away with it _here_.  You and my dad will be able to take care of it.  _You’ll_ remember.”

There was a crack as the steering wheel shattered in his hand.

***

He cooked, while she went over the police records, laboriously making notes on each case, that she and _her_ Lucifer had solved but that _hadn’t_ been solved properly here.

They ate in silence and, when she caught him looking, she realized that he had the beginnings of the same pain in his eyes as _her_ Lucifer.

‘ _I’m doing it again.’_   she thought,  ‘ _somehow_ , _I’m breaking another one…’_

After lunch, he went to the guest room and retrieved her bullet proof vest, snagging her one of his clean shirts as he passed his wardrobe.

“I’d like to keep the one you have on, if I may.”  He said, handing her the vest and the clean shirt.  She looked at him, puzzled.  “Come on, get a wriggle on,”  He said, lightly.  “You’re going home.”

“I told you, I _can’t_ wish for my dad to be _dead_ …”

“You won’t have to; trust me.”

***

They took the corvette; he wanted, just once, to drive her in it.  When he turned the key the radio came to life:

_“What if God was one of us?”_

Lucifer snarled and hit the button for another station.

_“I don’t want to start any blasphemous rumours, but I think that God has a sick sense of humour…”_

Snarl, press button.

_“..Devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal..”_

Snarl, switch radio off.

Chloe giggled and Lucifer laughed with her, as they drove to the place where Cain had set his trap, for them both, in another reality.

There was no one there and the locks yielded to Lucifer’s touch, the way locks always did.

“He had a shootout, _here_?”  Lucifer asked, looking around at all the valuable art, almost certainly stolen, which lined the space.  “He actually _planned_ it?  What a dick.”

Chloe smiled.

“I woke up, over there, on those steps.”  She said.

“That’s where you’ll leave from, then.”  He said,  “But before that, would you do something for me?  Would you slap me again?”

She nodded and complied.  His face felt like any other human’s and he flinched.

“Thank you.  I just needed to know.”

He fished around in his pocket and took out his coin.  It spun lazily over the palm of his hand.

“Let’s get you into position.”

She kissed him.

It was hunger and heat and want and need and _loss_.  He wanted to hold her but he knew that, if he did, he would never, _could_ never let her go.  For once, he had to be the strong one.

They walked to the foot of the steps.

“You’re sure?”  She asked.

“I don’t need it.”  He said, truthfully, “I’m never going back to Hell.” 

Amenadiel had explained it.  _This_ version of reality would only exist while Chloe was in it.  When she used his Pentecostal coin, to cross dimensions, this world and everyone in it would cease. 

“When I put it in your hand, hold it tightly and picture yourself where you need to be.”  She nodded, holding out her hand.  “ _Your_ Lucifer loves you, no matter _what_ he lets you believe.  He’s died for you and he’s killed for you.  Go home to him and make him admit it.”

He put the coin in her hand and backed away, watching as cold fire flared behind her fingers and she…

…opened her eyes to see _her_ Lucifer, looking at her, a puzzled expression on, what she would always think of as, his _cosplay_ face.

“Detective?”

She ran to him.  He groaned in pain as she wrapped her arms around him and he brought his hand up to touch her…  Oh no.  anything but _that_.

She was _kissing_ him, so his Devil face _couldn’t_ be back, _could_ it?  Why were his hands changed, then?

“I’ve missed you _so_ much.”  She said, pausing from the kiss to breathe.

‘ ** _Missed_** _me?  That makes **no** sense.’  _ He thought, gazing down at her.

“Can you change back, before our backup gets here?  It’s going to be hard enough to explain.. without…”  She gestured at him.  “Obviously it doesn’t bother _me_ but the others..”

She bent down and pulled Maze’s knife from Cain’s chest.  The body seemed to settle a bit and then, slowly collapsed into dust.

“One less thing to explain.”  She said, calmly.  Then she snorted in amusement, “Like something out of one of my Mom’s films.”

“He was the first _born_ human.  He was very old.”  Lucifer said, finally willing his Devil face away.

He took Maze’s knife from Chloe and somehow made it vanish into his suit.

“You know, we _could_ just leave.”  Chloe said,  “Now that Pierce is… isn’t… anymore.  I’m sure that Ella could convince everyone that _that_ ,”  She gestured at the clothes and dust and blood stained feathers, “is an art installation.”

“He’s not wearing his badge.  No wallet, no watch, no I.D., I suppose we _could_ leave.”  Lucifer confirmed.

“Let’s go back to Lux and scare the shit out of that hit-man, that set us up.”  Chloe said, smiling.  “Then we _really_ need to talk.  _Then_ , we go to my place so I can hug my daughter…”

“Sounds like a plan.  Can I just ask you, though…”  Lucifer sounded a bit shell-shocked, now.  “How are you wearing one of my shirts?”

“It’s a very long story.”

 

 


	3. Home Again

 

“Ella?  Oh, Ella, you have to come, maybe you can do something.  Lucifer and I have put tape up but because it’s a crime scene, they want to process it and they’re treading all over the art works.  Yeah, a lot of them have suffered minor damage but the biggest…”  Chloe bit back a sob,  Lucifer rolled his eyes.  “The biggest one is ‘The Deconstruction of Adam’, yeah that’s right, by the Red-Eared Slider Collective.”  Lucifer bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud.  “Yeah, look, I’m sending you some pictures of what’s left, I thought maybe you could compare them to the official website images and _maybe_ it can be saved.  No, obviously, it won’t help if forensics think it’s _actual_ human remains… yeah, yeah, I’ll do that.  Okay, I’ll meet you downstairs.”

Chloe put her phone away, grateful that it still worked.  She hadn‘t had it in the _other_ world and had found it on the floor, here, thankfully undamaged.

“It would seem that Daniel isn’t the _only_ one to do improv, Detective.  I’m extremely impressed.”  Lucifer said in a low voice.

“There’s quite a bit of improv in acting school.  Ella and Dan have already left, _she’ll_ be downstairs soon, you stay here and protect the ‘art’, I’ll go talk to her and then we’re out of here.”

Lucifer waited.  They had had the bad luck to run smack into the backup officers, as he and Chloe were leaving and then just had to bluff it out.  Chloe had made sure that Cain’s remains had been declared off limits and was now ensuring that her claims of it being art, could be backed up.

Lucifer was suddenly exhausted.  His wings itched and his arm was throbbing; all he wanted was to go somewhere quiet, open his wings, shake the spent bullets out of them and then sleep.  Maybe some alcohol could be slotted into this schedule.

**Chloe knew**.

The thought struck him all over again.  She _knew_ , she had seen and… she had _kissed_ him.  Maybe, he speculated, she just couldn’t see it, was immune somehow like she was to his other… No, she had suggested that he might want to change back. 

Then, there was the question of his shirt; _how_ was she wearing it?  She certainly hadn’t been wearing it on the roof, the most unobservant of humans would realize that.  Also, when she had kissed him, she had smelt freshly bathed.  Specifically, washed in guest toiletries from _his_ guest bathroom.  If he didn’t know better, he might think that _someone_ had stopped time for _him_ , then taken Chloe for a shower and a change of clothes.

He recognized the shirt; he was, after all, an archangel, with a frighteningly good eye for detail and, what humans like to call, a photographic memory.  The last time he had seen _that_ shirt, it had been being cut off him in the E.R., having already been ruined by a knife blade and a quantity of _his_ blood.  There was no doubt in his mind, it was the same shirt.  He remembered distinctly, he had put it on after Axara had spilled her smoothie on him.  It had had tiny imperfections in the silk, as unique as a fingerprint.  How was Chloe walking around in a shirt, that _he_ had seen destroyed, months ago?

_‘I’ve missed you so much’_ That was what she had said to him and it made no sense if they had only been apart for minutes but if it had been _longer_ …

“Okay, everyone hold it right there.”  Ella burst in looking ready to do battle.  “I’m sure none of you want to be the one to explain to the insurance company.”

“You mean this is legit?  Actually meant to be _art_?”  One of the team said, incredulously.

“Where you philistines _been_?  Living under a _rock_?  ‘The Deconstruction of Adam’ was stolen three years ago,  the news reports were hu-uge.  What we should do is put a tent over the central area, to protect it, until a restoration expert can come and take a look.”

“What about the scene?”

“You got pictures didn’t you?  Besides, anyone can see how it went down.”  She indicated the man on the floor with the automatic next to him.  “Dude here, shot all around, hitting these dudes and the pillars and all this expensive, stolen art.  Then _he_ gets taken out, by persons unknown.”

“He’s not dead.”  Lucifer said, quietly.

“Huh?”

“He’s only unconscious.”

“Better get a medical team up here, then.”

“Talking of that,” Chloe said, “I need to get you to a hospital, Lucifer.”

“Oh _man_ ,”  Ella said, seeing Lucifer’s arm for the first time, the slice through the fabric of his jacket, his shirt and his skin.  “How’d I miss that?”

“Not to worry, Miss Lopez, it hardly hurts.”

“C’mon, you’re in shock…”  Chloe said, gently.  She led him away.

***

“Alone at last,”  She said, once they were in the car, “Where to, Lux?”

“Provided that hit-man is gone, yes.  I need to get the bullets out of my wings, sort this wound out and get cleaned up.”  He eyed her - _his_ \- shirt, “A change of clothes would be nice.”

“The _other_ Lucifer gave it to me.”  She said, slightly defensively.

“Other Lucifer.  Michael?”

“That’s the twin you never mentioned having, yes?  No, not him.  I was in another reality, one where my father survived the shooting.  It was all _different_ , I never became a cop and because of that, most of the people I - _we_ \- have brought to justice, are still free.”

“And there’s another me?”  Lucifer asked, carefully.

“Yes.  I went to Lux, looking for _you_ , I’d already been to the precinct and seen my dad and D…”  Her breathing hitched and she swallowed.  “So, I went to Lux because I figured that you would know what was happening, being the Devil and there could only be _one_ of you but…”

“He wasn’t me?”

“No, he was more like the you I _first_ met.  I explained what had happened, though and he helped me.”

“How long were you there?”

“A day or so.  He managed to send me back here with a magic coin.  He said that it was his ticket back to Hell but since he was never going back, he wouldn’t need it.”

“Right.”

“I know, it sounds crazy but…”

“I believe you, Detective, you wouldn’t make up something like that.  Besides, there’s the shirt.  Conclusive proof.”

“It’s just a shirt.”

“That particular shirt was destroyed.  I was wearing it when I got stabbed, remember?”

“I remember _a_ shirt getting destroyed, one of many; you _always_ seem to be griping at how the job affects your wardrobe.  How do you tell them apart?  Do you number them or something?”

“No need, they all _look_ different.”

Chloe rolled her eyes at that.

“You don’t seem to be _too_ shocked to find out that I’m the _actual_ Devil.”

“You’ve been telling me for long enough.  I’d already figured it out when you left me on the roof, then I came down the stairs and saw your ‘cosplay’ face…”

“My _what_?”

“That’s what _I_ call it.  Other Lucifer showed it to me properly and explained how it happened and that he only kept it because the demons in Hell found it more acceptable than his true form.”

“I suppose…”

“ _He_ referred to it as _his_ ‘true form’, to start with but by the time he’d explained it and I’d told him my take on it, he agreed that it wasn’t.”

“Oh, _well_ , if you’ve already _won_ that argument...”  Lucifer was too tired to disagree with this remarkable woman.  “How did you _get_ to this other reality?”

“I don’t really know, I came down the steps, saw you with Pierce.. _Cain_ … then it was dark and I was lying on the steps and the fire fight _clearly_ hadn’t happened… and there was like a dream with a misty place and someone asking if I could have it come true what would I wish… I _didn’t_ wish.. because wishes _don’t_ come true.. Or, at least, I didn’t think so but the voice asked about wrongs I’d like righted and I thought about my dad… and _then_ I was in a place that showed me just how _many_ wrongs there would be in the world if he _hadn’t_ died.  Other Lucifer said it was probably one of your dad’s experiments.”

“Seems likely.  So, if you didn’t follow your father into the LAPD, what _did_ you do?”

“Acting.  I played a lead character in the ‘Weaponizer’ films.  I was meant to be shooting ‘Weaponizer 5’  when I had my little ‘timeout’ at Lux.”

“Timeout?”

“Yeah.  When I first realized that other Lucifer wasn’t _my_ Lucifer.. _you_ , I got a bit wobbly and he carried me up to his penthouse.  So many people had footage of it on their phones… it was _all_ over the internet, it seems the studio thought I was taking time off to be with my…”  She blushed,  “My er… new lover.”

“I take it he _offered_.”  Lucifer said, coldly.

“Of _course_ he did, he was _you_.”

“And?”

“Do you really have to _ask_?”  She glanced sideways at him, he was quiet but his jaw muscles were twitching, the way the other Lucifer’s had, when she’d told him about Jimmy Barnes.  “Apparently you feel you do.  I did _not_ have sex with your alternate reality self, Lucifer.  And _there’s_ something I never thought I’d hear myself say.”

“ _Why_ didn‘t you?”

“Oh, _where_ do I start?”  She rolled her eyes as she parked in her reserved space in the Lux parking area.  She turned in her seat to face him.   “I admit that there was a certain appeal.  Have the best night of my life with a Lucifer that actually _wanted_ me…”

“You think that I don’t _want_ you?”

“You’ve been making _that_ extremely obvious for over a year.  You got married to _really_ rub my nose in it and, even though you got divorced, you’ve made it pretty clear that the best I can hope for is friendship and, for anything else, I should move on.  And _then_ , you really went for the ‘ _I_ don’t give a damn about _you_ ’ award by letting me nearly marry _Cain_.  First murderer and criminal mastermind, even _friends_ don‘t do that.  One word from _you_ and I would have called it off before it got _started_ … maybe three words… So, _yeah_ , a facsimile of the man I love, offers to take me to bed and show me ‘the restorative power of an orgasm’, forgive me if I’m a _little_ bit tempted.  I _didn’t_ because… it wasn’t _you_ looking out of his eyes...”

“You _love_ me?”

“..Although, the pain _was_ starting to show in them by the time I left.  I’m sure if I’d stayed longer, I could have ended up _really_ hurting him…”

“Detective, you love _me_?”

“..Especially since he’d already lost his immortality around me, by then…”

“Chloe, _you_ love me?”

“You know what?  I don’t think I _want_ that talk any more.  You can keep your secrets and I’ll just…”

He kissed her.

It was passion and pain and wonder and desperation and _love_.

When she responded, there was an explosion of white; then flying glass as every window in her car shattered outwards from the shockwave and then the tinkling of spent bullets falling.

“Bollocks.”

“Oh that’s just _great_ , Lucifer,” she said,  “What on earth am I going to put on the claim form when it says ‘how did the damage occur’?  Explosively over excited _angel_?”

“I _caused_ the damage, I’ll pay to fix it.”  He carefully pulled his wings back into the car, folding them and finally making them vanish.  “It least the bullets are out, now.”

“Where’d all the blood go?”  Chloe asked, as they made their way to the elevator.

“I healed.  I’m not vulnerable around you any more.  Not _that_ way, anyhow.”

“But you _were_ when you protected me earlier, what changed?”

“I came to a conclusion, while I was watching Cain die, that becoming vulnerable around _you_ was something I did to _myself._ once I _knew_ that, it stopped happening.  _You_ can probably still hurt me _directly_ but other people _can’t_ , anymore.”

“So you still don’t want me shooting you.”

“Not if you can avoid it, no.”

“I’ll bear it mind.”

“Help yourself to a drink, this won’t take long.”  He went off in the direction of the bathroom.

Chloe took out her phone and Googled ‘The Deconstruction of Adam’.  True to her word, Ella had found a friend who had managed to make it look as though it was an _actual_ art work, that had been stolen three years ago.  She didn’t know the identity of Ella’s ‘computer wiz’ friend - probably for the best, in general ‘fake news’ is a _bad_ thing - but ‘whoever’ had worked _wonders_ with the photographs that she had sent.  The ‘official website’ pictures made it look spectacular: white angel wings, broken and blood stained, stretching out towards the man shaped dust pile that spilled out of Pierce’s clothes.  There was even a short biography of the ‘Red-Eared Slider Collective’ who had supposedly retired from the art world, after completing this, their _only_ piece.  Presumably they were now, Chloe thought with a smile, enjoying their more famous, sewer based, crime fighting enterprise.

Chloe owed Ella, big-time.

She wondered, idly, what the result would have been, if any particles of Cain had made it under a microscope.  _Then_ she wondered what would have happened if _she_ had had Lucifer’s blood tested, that time.

She hadn’t needed to, not really.  If she was honest with herself, she had always known that he was different and a part of her had just been waiting for _him_ to give her the proof.

A pained groan from the bathroom got her attention.

The door wasn’t locked, so she walked in and found Lucifer, stripped to the waist, carefully laying a small feather on his upper arm wound.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes.  The cut was made with a blade forged in Hell, if I couldn’t do _this_ , it might take years to heal.”

The feather grew brighter until Chloe had to look away.  When the light had faded, she looked back and saw that the ugly wound was gone.

“I’ll have that drink now, I think.”  She said, “It’s not like I’ll be driving.”  Her car was ruined.

“I’ll be out of here in five minutes; then you can ask me anything.”

“I’ll think of some questions.”

She sat on his bed and stared at the truly hideous painting that he kept in front of his wall safe.  If _this_ could be art then why _not_ a decomposed biblical figure?

_Other_ Lucifer didn’t have this, she realized.  If the other world’s differences were all because of a change in _her_ life, then this painting was somehow to do with _her_.

“What’s the story behind _that_?”  She asked him, when he finally joined her - five minutes, ha!

“Seriously, _that’s_ your first question?  Did Daniel never tell you?”

“No, is it bad?”

“It’s terrible, as you can see but it was the least visually offensive of all the options.”

“I meant the story.”

“Were it not for the circumstances, the story would be quite amusing.”

He told her all about it and she actually _did_ laugh when he got to the part where he and Dan were taken prisoner and Lucifer had asked if it was all part of the plan. 

“So, even though he couldn’t give you the _formula_ , you still hung the painting in the busiest area of your penthouse, where most of your guests would see it.  You could have hung it in your wine cellar, or something.”  Chloe said, laughing.

“That wouldn’t have been in the spirit of the deal.  He gave us a list of the ingredients, which was vitally important, it gave Daniel and Miss Lopez time to track them down while _I_ got the formula…”  His voice trailed off as he realized what he said.

“From a dead man.”  Chloe whispered,  “Lucifer, what did you _do_?”

“Well, I didn’t have my wings then, I couldn’t _fly_ down to Hell so…”

“So..?”

“Linda, Maze and myself locked ourselves in the room directly below yours, with a defibrillator and I… used it to stop my own heart.”

“ _Why_ would you?”

“Maze was _meant_ to be doing it but she lost her nerve, Doctor Linda was there to bring me back, so… it had to be me.”

“That’s not what I _meant_.  That’s _twice_ you’ve died for me.  You’ve _killed_ for me too…”

“ _Who_ told you about Uriel.”  He asked, shocked.

“I was talking about _Cain_ … who’s Uriel?”

“My brother.”  He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“And you…?”

“I _had_ to.  He was going to destroy my.. _our_ mother and he was going to kill _you_.  The car ‘accident’ that you had was a warning to _me_.’

“ _Not_ just a freak accident?”

“Causing freak accidents was his thing.  Like desire is mine.”

“Hang on, you said ‘destroy’ _her_ and ‘ _kill_ ’ me.  Are those two things not the same?”

“No.  He had Azrael’s blade.  The blade of death.”  He clarified,  “It doesn’t just kill, it annihilates souls; _she_ would have been gone forever, whereas _you_ , he would have arranged another accident and _you_ would have gone to heaven and I would never have seen you again.”

“And that would matter to you?”

“Well of course, I love you.”

“Then… _why_..?”

He held her and explained about Amenadiel and her parent’s miracle and how he believed that she had somehow been forced to love him.  Some twisted plan of his father’s.

“That _can’t_ be right.”  She said, when he’d finished.  “If I’d been specifically made to fall in love with you, then your father wouldn’t have let Uriel threaten me; he wouldn’t have let me be poisoned…”

“Unless that was the _plan_.  If you were gone, I’d probably go back to Hell… there’d be nothing for me here…”

“So you think that before I was _born_ , your father made me as a trap for you, for when you finally decided to retire from Hell.  Do you think he made one for each generation?  Like _vampire_ slayers?  Maybe he made _hundreds_ and put one in each city on Earth.  So then we _meet_ and I was forced to love you and you were forced to love me…”

“No one _forced_ me.”  Lucifer growled.

“No one forced _me_ either.  If I was ‘made’ for you, I’d have _waited_ for you, surely?  Instead, I loved and married Dan.”

“You divorced him, though.”

“He wasn’t the man I thought he was.”

“Neither was Pierce.  Neither am _I_.”

Abruptly Chloe’s eyes filled with tears.

“ _Pierce_ was pure evil.  How could I have _missed_ that?”  She sobbed, remembering the terrible things he’d been responsible for in the _other_ reality.  What _he_ had ordered done, as a warning to _her_ father.

“The same way _I_ did.  Even after I knew who he _was_ , I believed him when he said he had nothing to feel guilty for.  We even have a section of _Hell_ for people who believe their evil acts are justified and I _still_ didn‘t see it in him.  He watched humanity grow up, learned how to manipulate them and hide who and what he was but _I_ should _never_ have been fooled.“

“That makes me feel slightly better.  You knew more about him than _I_ did, though, you could have _stopped_ me.”

“I did _try_.”

“With _stuff_.  You _know_ I’ve never been impressed by _stuff_.  I could _see_ that you were hurting but I didn’t know if it was for me or for _him_ , all I wanted you to do was _tell_ me…”

“You thought I wanted _him_?”

“It was a possibility, yeah.  You were really flirty with each other when you first met; he kept bigging _you_ up while making _me_ feel inadequate and when you two went undercover as a couple…”

“So when I was trying to change _your_ mind with _stuff_ , how did _that_ fit the theory?”

“I occurred to me that _maybe_ you were trying for a deal of some kind…”

“Buying you off so _I_ could have ‘the man I loved‘?”  He said, sarcastically.

“Well, _yeah_.”  She said, realizing he was getting angry, “Because if it was _me_ you loved then _surely_ you’d have just _told_ me.”

“I _couldn’t_.  I thought that you were _over_ that and, much as it hurt me, I was pleased that my father’s manipulation had worn off; I didn’t want to take your free will and besides, I’m not good enough for you.”

“Probably not but you _are_ who I _want_.  It just took a while for me to see it.  When we first met, I just thought you were an annoying distraction but then I kept seeing glimpses of who you really are.”

“The Devil.”

“No.  _That’s_ just a job title and a cosplay skin.  You are _so_ much more than that.  You should have shown me it all _sooner_ …”

“I’d planned to, the night I was devil-napped, instead I woke up in the desert with my wings back and my Devil face gone.”

“ _That’s_ what you were trying to do in Ella‘s lab.”

“I think now, that I took the face away, myself.”

“Because deep down you didn’t want me to see it?”

“Maybe.  It almost broke Linda, when I showed _her_.  I don‘t think I could stand to see fear of me on _your_ face.”

“I told you, a long time ago, that you don’t scare me, Lucifer.  I’ve been scared _for_ you a few times and _that’s_ where it would have helped if you’d _proved_ all this devil stuff.  We could have worked together a lot better if I’d _truly_ known.”

“You couldn’t just _believe_ me?”

“Hello, hard core _atheist_ here.  If a believer like _Ella_ doesn’t believe you, what chance do _I_ have?  I‘m _more_ shocked that your _father_ exists than that _you_ do.”

“I can’t work out why he made you, if not for me.”

“Wow, egotistical much?  Maybe it was for the cases that we’ve solved.  I’ve just _seen_ a world where they _wouldn’t_ have been if…”  Her voice trailed off and her face drained of colour.

“What?“

“Was _that_ it?“  She whispered,  “My dad wanted a child and he got _me_ and in exchange he had to _die_ so I would become a cop?“

“Deals are more _my_ thing than His…”

“That other world, so much _injustice_ ; everyone that I _think_ I know, here, practically _monsters_ there.  Aside from you.”

“And your dad was the _only_ difference?”

“Yes.  Maze threw a knife at me, just for calling her ‘Maze’ - you caught it - saved my life.  Linda had a TV show - which, apparently, _I_ got her - where celebrity volunteers talk about their problems on live TV - public torture of the _worst_ kind, making them _cry_ just for the ratings.  Ella was a car thief and Dan… Dan was… _evil_.”

Lucifer gave a snort of laughter at the thought of an ‘evil’ Douche but realized from Chloe’s stricken face that she was deadly serious.

“Tell me.”  He said, taking her protectively into his arms.

She explained about the kidnapping and the rapes and about the photographs of her resulting daughter.  How the Dan of _that_ world _looked_ at her and the way her _father_ \- duly warned - ignored all the sloppy detective work and police corruption, for fear of what might happen to his family.

“I don’t even know how I’ll be able to _look_ at our Dan without…”

“You _can_ because, here, he never _did_ those things.”

“But he must be _capable_ , have the potential… how could _I_ have _changed_ that?”

“Obviously having you and the spawn gave him a reason…”

“ _Trixie_.  I need to see her, _hold_ her, make sure she’s real…”

“Of course.  Allow me to drive you.”

“Thank you.  Will you… _would_ you.. like… to stay with me, tonight?”

“I would _love_ to, Detective.”

Chloe smiled.  She had made a promise, in that other world and when she got _her_ Lucifer alone, later tonight, she planned on carrying it out.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I caved under pressure and wrote another chapter; kinda hard when I actually thought that this was finished. I hope you enjoyed it.


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